Sunday, March 16, 2008

ASK THE EDITOR: WWE excluded the Dudleys from Greatest Tag Team Ever - justified or not? By Wade Keller, Torch editor Mar 15, 2008 PWTorch.com reader Nick Alba asks: I just finished reading the Greatest Tag Teams listed on WWE's "List This" column and I gotta wonder who the Dudley Boyz pissed off over there! I agree that the Road Warriors - that's right - not Legion of Doom are the greatest, but the Dudleys are nowhere to be found, not even as a Honorable Mention and Paul London & Brian Kendrick are! I hope you guys can either look into this or maybe explain how this happens.

WWE's list is as follows: (1) The Road Warriors; (2) The Hardy Boys; (3) The Hart Foundation; (4) Edge & Christian; (5) The Freebirds; (6) Demolition; (7) Harlem Heat; (8) The Samoans; (9) The Rockers; (10) The British Bulldogs..... Politics did play into their list in other ways, such as the high inclusion of the Freebirds (who didn't do much for WWE, but Michael Hayes is a top writer for the company now) and the exclusion of the Steiners from even an honorable mention.Based entirely and exclusively on what tag teams did while in WWE (thus the exclusion of the Freebirds and Harlem Heat from my list) in the WrestleMania years (since WWE.com excluded any teams from the pre-WrestleMania years in their list except for The Samoans), I would rank The Hart Foundation, British Bulldogs, Hardys, Dudleys, and Demolition as the top five (in no particular order). This is based on my totally subjective ratings of being good workers or having good matches, having a decent-length run, being prominently featured to the point of being historically relevant, having their best years in WWE, and being in memorable feuds.My second tier of five would be: Edge & Christian, New Age Outlaws (excluded by WWE.com, also), The Rockers, The Road Warriors, and The Dream Team of Brutus Beefcake & Greg Valentine (also a gross exclusion from WWE's ranking).The third tier would be: Strike Force, APA, The Brain Busters, Barry Windham & Mike Rotunda, and Money Inc.The fourth tier of five would be: The Steiners, The Smoking Gunns, Can-Am Connection (Tom Zenk is on the persona non grata list, also, after his anti-WWE blog in the early 2000s),The Quebecers, and Paul London & Brian Kendrick (good team, but never pushed as a money act at all).I admit this list would be different if I were asked a week ago, but I doubt anybody would jump more than one tier up or down. Any such list is subject even if I had all of their stats in terms of how long they teamed and how high on cards they were featured, but I think my list is a lot more reflective of a sensible criteria than WWE's.